All posts filed under: Design

I have been a bit busy the last few months! As I have been getting used to my role at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, I have been designing on several levels. As the Director of the Studio School, I create classes and events with my staff (Dalila DeCarvalho, I am looking at you!) . As the defacto art director, I design the materials to support them: pieces for print, web, for educational and promotional purposes. Applying a forming style I have had to design as quickly as possible, so I work within extremely narrow limits. It’s the only way I know to find great ideas, actually. I have limited the options for grids and fonts as much as I dare and let the color story develop as I go. It isn’t perfect, but it is actually starting to turn into a consolidated style my team can use. I have been able to get the catalog set up and it has come together well. I even get to go to Linco to print it! Press check …

I redesigned the catalog of the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey this month. I took it as a chance to refresh the brand. As the Director of the Studio School, I need to make sure I am reaching and hearing all the people for whom I hope to serve. This catalog, along with the website and other communications, is my program’s lifeline. Motif The Art Center connects all levels of art makers to each other and the world. I started playing with these fairly oblique geometric shapes connecting elements to each other in the background. I will pull that thread until I find a way to talk about the entire organization: contemporary art museum, studio school, and community resource. I chose the color as a starting point as I venture through the spectrum until we all settle on a solid color story. In essence, I hope to gently beta test a few elements while I promote all that the Art Center already has in abundance: engaged staff, spectacular museum programming, great instructors, and a solid core of students and visitors. My goal is to …

After a lot of work behind the scenes, the Spring 2016 GenEdge work is coming to fruition. Over 30 people (faculty, staff, and students) from across the City Tech campus submitted work to be displayed in three amazing and concurrent exhibits which will happen from April 11-15. So far I’ve made the logo, the branding campaign, a style guide, several animated pieces, assignments for students, staff, and faculty… Oh, and video spots that are coming up. I curated a show, I am documenting it all… A lot of work! I hope it makes a difference for City Tech!

I have begun rolling out the identity for an internal General Education Committee promotion here at City Tech. I had to weave the idea of what we have tried to do into the existing brand identity of the school while imparting the vigor and importance of the 60 credits of Gen Ed our students take here in the 4 year program. I have developed what will be an extensible logo system. Here is the base, a simple badge: I want it to be super simple, but slightly askew: general education classes make up 60 of the 120 credits our 4-year students take. The City Tech GenEdge is the result of years of effort by the college-wide curriculum development and the General Education Committee. We have taken the General Education requirements, the students’ needs, and the expectations of society to put together a meaningful approach to skills and attitudes we all need. This is the added benefit of culture and community our students and graduates deserve, and which helps them thrive as they enter the world …

I have the distinct honor of being a panelist at the Design in Educational Technology: STEAM event at SOS Brooklyn on October 6, 2015. I am in awe that Sean Oakes (the founder of SOS) asked me and am so honored to be sitting on the panel with some absolutely amazing thinkers, creators, and practitioners. Laurie Carey, an ed consultant and founder of We Connect the Dots – a non-profit organization that provides STEAM programs for schools and communities: Our mission is to excite, inform and educate students about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) careers. Through a collaboration with the community, education, government and the technology industry, WCTD provides awareness and education of the 21st Century workforce skills, as well as the opportunities available to students embracing STEAM careers. Impacting students at a local, national and global level, our programs create a hunger for learning that empowers students to find their own paths to success. Jenny Young, Founder of the Brooklyn Robot Factory. Jenny has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. She grew up working alongside her father in …

I have always had to hustle in order to keep my artwork going. Luckily, I learned to be a designer. It has been an enormous help. Here are 20 pieces which cover my work in this arena. Interaction Design I have worked as an interaction designer in some capacity for 15+ years. I’ve been spending more time teaching it than designing, but trying to get some more projects going this year. Print Ah, my first love! Logos and Identity Outreach We must always give back in some capacity.

I am producing materials and running the orientation of the new COMD (Communication Design) students this year, working once again with my co-conspirator, Prof. Anita Giraldo. We are developing a set of tools which will act as the needed decoder rings for incoming freshmen and transfers.

Class Website I was asked to teach a senior level class at City Tech in June, called Design Team. This class is a chance for our students to work as a larger whole for one client. As I told the class: You are going to be a part of a crack team of designers, solving problems and finding ways to innovate while working your butts off. You will be graded on your ability to work as a teammate and as an individual thinker. Our Client: DURA DURA Home | Facebook Page | Official Listing on Solar Decathlon Site This term, we had the honor of working on the design materials for the City Tech Solar Decathlon Project, known as DURA. I was so grateful to be able to work with the main designer for all of the materials to that point, Jennifer Jimenez, who graciously served as my art director and copilot for the entire class. The Work DURA had some key challenges with which we worked: they needed a revamped social media strategy, print materials or …

I had the distinct pleasure to work with Cynthia King and design for her dance studio for years. By far, she was the best client I have had. She is driven by a strong, compassionate ethos, she believed in my abilities, she treated me as a partner in our work, and she is just really nice to boot.